Mills Bomb

[tiriaq]

Many years ago, I was visiting a chap. On the mantelpiece in his den were some militaria. One item was a 36M. Had a quick look at it, and asked him if he knew it was live. He did, but it was OK because it did not have the igniter set installed...

[rcathey]

Many years ago, I was visiting a chap. On the mantelpiece in his den were some militaria. One item was a 36M. Had a quick look at it, and asked him if he knew it was live. He did, but it was OK because it did not have the igniter set installed...

I hit the auctions and pawn shops with a buddy of mine. He does diamonds and gold and knows nothing about guns/militaria (we make quite the pair walking into pawn shops: "Show us your gold and guns.")
Anyway, we went to an auction a few weeks ago and I came away with two dummy 50lb bombs. We got about 30 minutes into our drive back home and he sheepishly asks, "so, uh, those aren't real, right?" Haha, I had to commend him for holding in his worries for that long!

[Aragorn243]

I tell you what, 9 days from placing the order and it's at my house, from England. These guys are great to deal with. I had about 10 minutes of not being able to figure out how the striker and spring went together and actually put it together wrong the first time but after I figured it out, it all makes sense and looks great. What threw me off was the strength of the spring. Basically takes three hands to put it together easily, It's a challenge with two. You basically need something strong that you can use as a shaft to push in and hold in place until you can get the spoon set in the striker.

[Flying10uk]

What threw me off was the strength of the spring. Basically takes three hands to put it together easily, It's a challenge with two. You basically need something strong that you can use as a shaft to push in and hold in place until you can get the spoon set in the striker.

Because you have a No36 grenade, the striker that you have should have a slot running through the lower end. If you find yourself a strong, flat-bladed screw driver that fits into this slot, you can use the screwdriver as a plunger tool to compress the spring. I don't know if this was the reason for putting the slot in the plunger of No36 grenades, originally, but it does work in practice for assembling inert display grenades. This is because the screwdriver remains in alignment with the striker while the spring is being compressed.

[browningautorifle]

You basically need something strong that you can use as a shaft to push in and hold in place

I don't know if this was the reason for putting the slot in the plunger of No36 grenades, originally,

You place the screwdriver against your web belt and then you have both hands to work with. The screwdriver lets you turn the striker to locate as you figured out. Of course you're wearing a web belt because you're in combat clothing and fighting order when using these beauties...

[peregrinvs]

I was under the impression that they were assembled at the factory. They were supplied in boxes with the fuze / detonator assemblies in a separate tin. The guy on the ground only had to unscrew the base plug, insert the detonator and then rescrew the base plug to ready it for use.

[browningautorifle]

They were packed in wax and had to be cleaned first. Then you assembled and tested the striker for free movement, again against your web belt. Then set it all together again and insert the detonator and base plug...set them on the ready to use shelf in the ammo bay and issue to a firer, unless you're having them do it themselves.

[Aragorn243]

Why make everything so difficult? Not positive but I think US grenades came ready to go from the factory.

[browningautorifle]

I think US grenades came ready to go from the factory.

Yes, so do ours now and they have since the #36 was withdrawn. Mind, we changed to the M61 and M67 then, V40 too for a while. Yes, all self contained.

[Flying10uk]

Jim, roughly what sort of time did Canada stop using the Mills No36 grenade, please? Did Canada use them for longer than the UK?